New Free Tool: ABR Exporter
Not every fantasy cartographer has Photoshop, GIMP, Procreate, or any of the other design software that can read and use Photoshop ABR files. There are still plenty of people using other tools, and often those tools use transparent PNGs as assets: Wonderdraft,…
We really are. It's great!
I dunno if I shared Moon on here. But we also have Moon.
www.instagram.com/p/DTHDsRxD5kI/
Meet Greta
The Alexander household has grown by one. This week, we welcomed Greta into our home. She's an 11-month-old rescue pup from Texas. (Her birthday is next month.) She's a Australian Cattle Dog and Poodle mix. She is a very happy lady, seems really smart, loves people and dogs, and is…
FWIW, you can come dig a cave here and become the local garden hermit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_...
I'll pay in occasional BBQ.
New! Old Mapping Asset PNG Packs!
Today I am excited to announce that I'm releasing new PNG packs of some of my oldest brush sets! If you've been using my asset for a while, you've probably noticed I started shipping PNG sets alongside every brush set starting in 2023 with Moronobu Gansai. Before…
FRIENDSHIP was robbed.
Uly Pupdate: Uly turns two!
On March 2nd, our boy turned two years old! He's settling into life here at Briarness. His routine remains the same as before. It's often shocking how smart he is. He still loves walks in the woods and playing with his buddies. He's impossible to keep clean. Still loves…
I am obsessed with these map brushes - images lifted from historical maps by @kmalexander.bsky.social (whom I thank for his skill and generosity)
Also now I have an excellent "excuse" to completely re-do all my maps, including the ones that are "finished."
kmalexander.com/2019/04/18/b...
The idea was born out of my need to add graffiti to the scenes I built for my video projects. Everything in here I’ve shot over the last six or seven years, and it comes from actual tags from Edinburgh, New York City, Oslo, Paris, Porto, Lisbon, Reykjavík, Santa Fe, Seattle, Vashon, and Zurich.
This is such a niche thing, I’m not really sure how to pitch it, heh. This one was one of those: "I need this for my own project, maybe someone else will too?" things.
Technically not since 2020. But I shave the sides/back every three-ish weeks.
True Tags: A Graffiti Brush Set
Graffiti is the oldest form of human expression. Even before humanity developed a written language, we were drawing on walls, leaving a mark, and letting the world know we were there. Graffiti has been found everywhere, in Egyptian pyramids, Myan ruins, Roman…
Look at this beautiful photo. Wow.
Qiánlóng: A Free 18th Century Cartography Brush Set for Fantasy Maps
The Huánghé (黄河), or the Yellow River as we know it in the West, carries rich cultural significance in China. The sixth-longest river in the world, the second-longest in China, it's traditionally considered the cradle of Chinese…
Top 5 of all time for me.
Unmoored
I was laid off last week. A few months shy of thirteen years. Totally unexpected. Still processing it. If you told me when I started that I’d have so much fun designing enterprise software for nearly thirteen years, I wouldn’t have believed you. My experience over that time was shaped by…
Oh, hell yes. Love this.
Apple and Google both are absolute cowards for not banning the X apps. If you won’t enforce your terms of service when an app generates CSAM and deep fake porn on-demand your so-called “walled garden” was always just an extractive monopoly.
overall korean food is an elite cuisine, imo
Hello 2026
Hey, Happy New Year! We made it through 2025. As always, thanks for hanging out with me, reading this blog, and taking an interest in the work I share here. I had big plans for 2025, and somewhere along the line, it got away from me. While we got a lot of home projects done, I left 2025…
My Reading List for 2025
Last year was a bit of a low point for me in terms of novels finished. This year was a slight improvement, and I managed to read some ponderous tomes. Any improvement is good, and overall, I had a good year, reading-wise, but I still feel I'm falling short of where I'd…
A table of YouGov polling data with the headline: "How your reading habits compare to other Americans." The chart has the sub-headline: "About how many books have you read or listened to so far in 2025? (% of U.S. adult citizens)."
NEW: How many books did you read this year? If it was more than 2, congrats: you read more than the median American.
Read on for way more @today.yougov.com polling from me on America's book-reading habits in 2025. 1/
My Media List for 2025
Since 2013, I've shared my reading list at the end of every year on this blog. Tomorrow I'll continue that tradition and do just that. But today I am starting something new: this year, I started tracking all the media I consumed over the twelve months of 2025, not just books…
I hope Sturgill Simpson had a merry Christmas.
2025 in Ten Significant Photos
In many ways, 2025 was a reset year for us. After the chaos of last year, with cancer and a fairly stressful move (among other things), taking a year to refocus felt necessary. That doesn't mean we rested. In true Alexander fashion, we took on a bunch of projects and…
The cliche that ‘having an idea’ is the hard part of writing is persistent and pernicious. Realising the idea is the craft of it. That FAQ of…
Hmm, so much of this depends on location. I'd probably stick with my design rate and bill a minimum of 3 hours, including teaching and prep time.
The Store is Back!
After way too long, my office buildout is complete, and my store is finally back. You can browse the goods over at store.kmalexander.com. If you ever wanted to get signed paperback copies of my books, merch mugs, or selected stickers, now is your chance. Hit the link above and…
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
